PARIS — They’re France ‘s most harmful drug kingpins, in response to the nation’s justice minister — jail inmates so wealthy and powerful that even behind bars, they’ll proceed to order assassinations, run narco-trafficking operations and launder cash.
Flexing his powers as minister answerable for the French penal system, Gérald Darmanin’s resolution to the issue is contentious. He’s transferring 100 inmates — males he describes as “France’s largest criminals” — into an austere most safety penitentiary within the nation’s north that critics say has echoes of powerful U.S. prisons.
The transfer can also be probably vote-catching for Darmanin, who has joined a rising subject of attainable successors to President Emmanuel Macron after the following election, lower than two years away.
Within the newly bolstered Vendin-le-Vieil jail, the chosen inmates will likely be locked in particular person cells for 23 hours on most days.
Largely reduce off from the world, Darmanin argues they’ll now not have the ability to gasoline drug-related violence, which has turn into a political subject forward of the 2027 presidential election.
“We’re right here to ensure that they do not converse to the skin, that they do not proceed their trafficking outdoors, that they do not corrupt jail officers, magistrates, cops and gendarmes,” Darmanin mentioned on primetime night tv after the primary 17 inmates have been transferred this week to Vendin-le-Vieil from different, much less safe services.
France has had a protracted historical past of each infamous prisons (the Bastille) and prisoners — each actual (Napoleon) and fictional (“The Depend of Monte Cristo”).
Nonetheless, Vendin-le-Vieil’s lock-up circumstances are distinctive, much like the ultra-secure “Supermax” prison in america and Italy’s powerful “carcere duro” incarceration guidelines for Mafia members.
Vendin-le-Vieil already homes a few of France’s most notorious prisoners — together with Salah Abdeslam, lone survivor of a group of Islamic State extremists that terrorized Paris in 2015, killing 130 folks in gun and bomb assaults.
To make approach for the specifically chosen 100 inmates — some already convicted, others in pre-trial detention — many different Vendin-le-Vieil inmates have been moved out. The newcomers will likely be grouped collectively within the jail’s new “Part for Combatting Organized Crime,” with bolstered safety and rules, and outfitted with programs to dam cell phone alerts and drones.
Amongst these on the listing for Vendin-le-Vieil is Mohamed Amra, nicknamed “The Fly,” who staged an escape final yr that killed two guards after which fled to Romania earlier than he was captured and returned to France.
The newcomers can have only one hour a day in a jail train yard, in teams of not more than 5. The remainder of the time, they’ll principally be confined to particular person cells fitted with holes so jail guards can handcuff them earlier than transferring them and with ratchet programs so inmates cannot yank the doorways open or shut after they must be unlocked.
They are going to be guarded by 250 wardens — elsewhere, the ratio is often 20 guards to 100 inmates, Darmanin informed French broadcaster TF1.
As a substitute of limitless calls with relations from jail telephones, they are going to be restricted to a most of two hours, twice every week — a restriction that Darmanin says will make monitoring their conversations simpler.
Jail visiting rooms have additionally been outfitted with safety glass dividers, to forestall bodily contact between inmates and guests. Darmanin says it will forestall cell phones and different contraband from being smuggled in. The brand new Vendin-le-Vieil inmates additionally will not have the rights accorded in different prisons of intimate time with companions and relations.
Darmanin mentioned the circumstances will likely be “extraordinarily laborious” however are mandatory as a result of France dangers “tipping into narco-banditry” within the absence of powerful choices.
Critics say Darmanin is taking a big gamble by grouping collectively so many inmates he describes as harmful.
“From what I do know, even after they’re positioned below the strictest isolation, they’re so good that they all the time discover methods to speak with one another,” mentioned Might Sarah Vogelhut, an lawyer for one of many 17 prisoners transferred this week. “It is virtually extra like a networking membership for billionaire narco-traffickers.”
She and others additionally say the powerful circumstances may inflict an unacceptable toll on the prisoners’ psychological well being.
Vogelhut mentioned her 22-year-old consumer was a significant drug seller within the southern French port metropolis of Marseille and was convicted and sentenced to 25 years for torturing his victims. He’s interesting his sentence.
Held in isolation in one other jail earlier than his switch to Vendin-le-Vieil, his largest concern was the glass barrier that may forestall him from hugging his mom and touching different guests, Vogelhut mentioned.
“What shocks me probably the most on this new detention middle is that the visits occur by a safety glass intercom — you understand, like what we French see in American motion pictures, when the particular person is behind a glass and also you speak by a cellphone,” she mentioned.
“I discover that inhumane. I imply, think about {that a} man spends 10 years there — for 10 years, he can’t hug his mom?” she mentioned. “I believe it’s going to dehumanize them.”
First as a minister for public accounts, then as inside minister and since final December as justice minister, Darmanin has confirmed to be one in every of Macron’s most loyal lieutenants.
His shut ties with the unpopular president, who cannot run once more, may work towards Darmanin if he runs in 2027. However his authorities expertise and tough-on-crime rhetoric may work in his favor with voters.
Darmanin has introduced plans for a minimum of two different high-security jail models for convicted and accused drug traffickers, one in every of them within the abroad territory of French Guiana.
Vogelhut accuses Darmanin of angling for votes and taking part in on “French folks’s fears and anxieties.”
“It gained’t resolve any issues,” she mentioned. “There gained’t be any much less crime.”